What does it cost to govern you?

I don’t know how much truth there is to this morning’s article on news.com.au stating that Australian MP’s are amongst the best paid politicians in the world, however it intrigued me enough to do some basic maths comparing how much Kevin Rudd, Barrack Obama, and David Cameron, get paid to govern each person in their respective countries.

If the article is correct and Kevin Rudd receives around $500,000 AUD, Barrack Obama receiving around $400,000 AUD, and David Cameron a whopping $235,000 AUD, then Prime Minister Rudd gets paid significantly higher per citizen than the other two…and it’s not even a close race.

Australia’s population is around 23.2 million, Rudd gets paid around $500,000 per annum, that’s a $21,551 AUD per citizen.

In comparison, the population of the USA is around 319 million, Obama gets paid around $400,000 per annum, that’s a meagre $1,253 per citizen.

Whilst David Cameron receives less renumeration than Obama, at around $235,000 per annum, he only has to govern around 63.2 million, which works out to be around $3,718 per citizen.

That is an astounding difference! $21,551 vs. $1,253 vs. $3,718…

What do you think, is our Prime Minister worthy of that sort of income, or are the Americans and Brits underpaying their leaders?